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How many politicians are there in the USA? (Infographic)

Turning on your television it can feel like politicians are everywhere. But the politicians that dominate the news barely scratch the surface of how many politicians there are in the United States. There are almost 100,000 unique governments in the United States, all electing 1 or more people to oversee that government. From School Board to City Council to President, the numbers of elected officials can be dizzying, which is why we put together this infographic to look at all of them, and break down the numbers.

If you'd like to dig into the data sets, or see it broken down by state, scroll below the infographic to get tables and links to our data.

This data was collected from a number of sources, the main one being the 1992 Census of Governments which collected data on every elected official in the United States. We took appended this data from the National Conference of State Legislators and compared it to Jennifer Lawless's 2012 book Becoming a Candidate. Where possible we updated this data with more recent numbers, but the data on local governments from that time period is the best we have.

See the Data by State

State

Population

Total

Federal

State

Local

Politicians Per 10,000 citizens

United States

327,167,434

512,658

534

17,628

493 830

20.6

Alabama

4,887,871

4,385

9

436

3 949

10.9

Alaska

737,438

1,929

3

255

1 674

35.1

Arizona

7,171,646

3,289

11

239

3,050

9

Arkansas

3,013,825

8,408

6

349

8,059

35.8

California

39,557,045

18,925

55

226

18 699

6.4

Colorado

5,695,564

8,605

9

280

8 325

26.1

Connecticut

3,572,665

9,147

7

333

8 814

27.8

Delaware

967,171

1,171

3

80

1 091

17.6

District of Columbia

702,455

348

0

–

348

5.7

Florida

21,299,325

5,588

29

934

4,654

4.3

Georgia

10,519,475

6,529

16

465

6,064

10.1

Hawaii

1,420,491

183

4

91

92

1.7

Idaho

1,754,208

4,775

4

171

4,604

47.4

Illinois

12,741,080

42,336

20

623

41,713

37

Indiana

6,691,878

11,624

11

506

11,118

21

Iowa

3,156,145

16,479

6

319

16,160

59.4

Kansas

2,911,505

18,895

6

343

18,552

76.3

Kentucky

4,468,402

7,060

8

565

6,495

19.2

Louisiana

4,659,978

5,051

8

629

4,422

12

Maine

1,338,404

6,556

4

210

6,346

53.4

Maryland

6,042,718

2,123

10

356

1,767

4.4

Massachusetts

6,902,149

22,173

11

225

21,948

36.9

Michigan

9,995,915

18,704

16

652

18,052

20.1

Minnesota

5,611,179

18,870

10

623

18,247

43.3

Mississippi

2,986,530

4,754

6

296

4,458

18.5

Missouri

6,126,452

17,281

10

994

16,287

33.8

Montana

1,062,305

5,106

3

201

4 905

63.9

Nebraska

1,929,268

13,899

5

201

13 698

88.1

Nevada

3,034,392

1,218

6

141

1,077

10.1

New Hampshire

1,356,458

7,347

4

430

6 917

66.2

New Jersey

8,908,520

9,042

14

121

8 921

11.8

New Mexico

2,095,428

2,201

5

220

1 981

14.5

New York

19,542,209

25,932

29

950

24 982

14.4

North Carolina

10,383,620

5,820

15

593

5 227

8.8

North Dakota

760,077

15,482

3

205

15 277

242.3

Ohio

11,689,442

19,366

18

231

19 135

17.9

Oklahoma

3,943,079

8,989

7

362

8 627

28.6

Oregon

4,190,713

7,833

7

290

7 543

27.6

Pennsylvania

12,807,060

30,476

20

1 200

29 276

25.7

Rhode Island

1,057,315

1,138

4

155

983

11.3

South Carolina

5,084,127

3,943

9

195

3 748

11.3

South Dakota

882,235

9,684

3

155

9 529

139.1

Tennessee

6,770,010

6,950

11

321

6 629

14.3

Texas

28,701,845

27,628

38

815

26 813

16.3

Utah

3,161,105

2,711

6

200

2 511

15.7

Vermont

626,299

8,534

3

186

8 348

151.6

Virginia

8,517,685

3,104

13

143

2 961

5

Washington

7,535,591

7,724

12

537

7 187

15.9

West Virginia

1,805,832

2,772

5

205

2 567

15.5

Wisconsin

5,813,568

17,829

10

450

17,379

36.5

Wyoming

577,737

2,742

3

121

2,621

60.4

According to these data sources, there are 519,682 politicians across the United States. Of these, 535 are Federal politicians, 18,749 are State Politicians, and 500,396 are local politicians. Note that the state data is slightly lower than the totals, as we do not include territories in the table.

We break this down further by each level:

Federal Politicians

There are 435 United States Congresspeople, 100 United States Senators, and of course 1 US President and 1 US Vice President.

State Politicians

There are 5,411 State Representatives, 1972 State Senators, 10,35 statewide office holders, and 1,331 state boards.

The average number by state is 376.6.

Statewide office holders includes the big names, things like governor, or attorney general, but many states put office holders like administrative offices or judges. The vast majority of these seats are judicial, which are elected in a judicial district which is larger than a county area, so it is considered a statewide office.

Local Politicians

The vast majority of politicians, 96.2%, are local elected officials. These break down to 135,531 city elected officials, 126,958 township members, 58,108 county officers, 95,000 school board members, and 84,089 special district members.

States range wildly in how they administer local governments. For instance, 20 states administer what are called "townships", small municipal governments that are usually below 10,000 citizens. These are referred to as "towns" in New England states.